South-East Asia correspondent for Fairfax Media

Wreckage of Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 at the crash site in eastern Ukraine. Photo: AFP

Kuala Lumpur: Many Malaysia Airlines staff are arriving at work with tears in their eyes. “Some of our members cannot fly because they have been affected mentally,” says the president of Malaysia Airlines' flight attendants' union Ismail Nasaruddin.

Back-to-back disasters that killed six pilots and 21 flight attendants have had a devastating impact on the morale on thousands of air crew and employees of Malaysia’s national carrier.

Mr Ismail shows none of the caution expressed by Malaysia’s leaders, who have refrained from directly accusing pro-Russian separatists of shooting down flight MH17 over eastern Ukraine on Thursday. “It’s mass murder,” he says.

A vigil for MH17 victims in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: AFP

As the airline sends counsellors and supportive emails to staff, Mr Ismail says they are suffering emotional trauma from seeing images of the bodies and wreckage of the Boeing 777.

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“It hits you really deep, seeing faces of people you know, friends you flew with many years ago, friends who called me right before the flight,” he says.

No group of flight attendants has ever had to deal with the loss of so many of their colleagues in a period of less than five months.

One crew member posted on Facebook she thought she was strong enough not to cry until she visited the relatives of a friend who was killed. “I am just speechless,” she wrote.

The trauma of MH17 has compounded the disappearance of MH370, another Boeing 777 that disappeared on March 8 over the South China Sea and is believed to have veered thousands of kilometres off course and crashed into the southern ocean. The relatives of crew members of MH370 have not filed claims for compensation, and some cling to hope that somehow their loved ones are still alive.

Flight attendant’s union executive council member Husni Uzair says the low morale at the airline is not because of the fear of flying. She says that, when the plane doors close, “we live together, we eat together, we fly together. We are very close”.

Across Malaysia there is deep sympathy for financially stricken Malaysia Airlines and 90 per cent of respondents to a television poll say a crew member should be Malaysia’s flag carrier at the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. “Only the most heartless of souls would not feel bad for them,” the pro-government New Straits Times newspaper said in an editorial, referring to the airline’s staff.

Relatives of the crew members who have perished tell heart-wrenching stories. Azrina Yakob, a chief flight attendant on MH17, had worked for the airline for 20 years and was looking forward to arriving home to celebrate the end of the Islamic fasting month with her husband and two young children. “Mommy went to work and the plane exploded,” her six year-old son Aqil Raif said as he watched wreckage of the plane on television.

Malaysia Airlines has retired its MH17 flight code out of respect for the passengers and crew of the plane that crashed. But the airline, which is majority owned by a state investment arm, has been financially crippled by the two disasters and its future is in doubt. The company lost $148 million in the first quarter of this year.

About 30,000 bookings were cancelled or delayed in response to the MH370 tragedy, although travel agents report bookings have not dropped significantly following the shooting down of MH17.

The company’s share price has dropped 35 per cent this year and there is talk in business circles about it being made private or allowed to go into bankruptcy before renegotiating union contracts and emerging under a different brand.

Mr Ismail says his members are not worried about losing their jobs because of the airline’s financial difficulties. “The crew members are demoralised … but they are continuing to do what they are supposed to do,” he said.